100 Best Scrum Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best scrum books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. more
Sheryl SandbergProvides a great inside look at how the tech industry approaches building products and businesses. (Source)
Ben HorowitzGreat. (Source)
Dustin MoskovitzAt Asana, we've been lucky to benefit from [the author]'s advice firsthand; this book will enable him to help many more entrepreneurs answer the tough questions about their business. (Source)
Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011
A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel... more
Barack ObamaA few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. (Source)
Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)
Marc AndreessenCaptivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? (Source)
Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better... more
Tobi Lütke[Tobi Lütke recommended this book in an interview in "The Globe and Mail."] (Source)
David Heinemeier HanssonTakes some of those same ideas about motivations and rewards and extrapolates them in a little bit. (Source)
Mike BenkovichI'd recommend a sprinkling of business books followed by a heap of productivity and behavioural psychology books. The business books will help you with principals and the psychological books help with everything else in your life. Building your own business can really f!@# you up psychologically. (Source)
Max LevchinA now-venerable guide to having tough conversations in a way that engages the debaters. (Source)
Deke BridgesPicked up this great book @Powells to read. Better conversation and listening enables you to get deeper into subjects at hand. When talking with people, this makes your communication skills a very powerful tool. Always be learning. #growth #education #leadership https://t.co/r0ujX9IPqh (Source)
As an agile coach, you can help project teams become outstanding at agile, creating products that make them proud and helping organizations reap the powerful benefits of teams that deliver both innovation and excellence. More and more frequently, ScrumMasters and project managers are being asked to coach agile teams. But it's a challenging role. It requires new skills--as well as a subtle understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Migrating from "command and control" to agile coaching requires a whole new... more
Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the... more
Jennifer RockIn Patrick Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the executive asks her senior leaders "Who is your first team?" And they each answer incorrectly that it's the team that reports to him or her. The point is that you need to shift your perspective to understanding your senior leadership peers are your first team. We read that book as a leadership team in a corporation where I worked --... (Source)
Joel GascoigneA leadership fable about a failing Silicion Valley tech company who brings in a new CEO. Kathryn attempts to unite a highly dysfunctional team and through his narrative Lencioni explains the five key ways that teams struggle, and how to overcome the hurdles. I read this book at a key point in time where we were just discovering that we needed to put our values into words and shape the culture of... (Source)
Mikhail DubovOne of the five books recommends to young people interested in his career path. (Source)
Jeff BezosEncourages companies to identify the biggest constraints in their operations and then structure their organizations to get the most out of those constraints. (Source)
Kevin SystromAbout basically manufacturing and supply chain management. It sounds really boring, but I promise you it’s really good. (Source)
Chris GowardHere are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: [...] The Goal. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet. Marquet acted like any other captain...
moreSimon SinekSo many leadership books are either theoretical (written by people who study it but don’t do it) or by people who look back and try to explain how they did it. Though both valuable, most leadership books are also very hard to implement as prescribed. That’s what makes Marquet’s book is so remarkable. A submarine commander, he used to obey traditional models of leadership … until they failed him.... (Source)
Jason FriedTurn the Ship Around is my favorite business book. A wonderful look at what leadership is really about. I recommend it highly. (Source)
David Heinemeier HanssonA wonderful book about a naval [Admiral] that was running one of the worst performing U.S. nuclear submarines and turned it around to be the best performing U.S. submarine by infusing his staff with basically saying they’re not waiting for a command, they’re saying what they intend to do. (Source)
Mircea ScarlatescuMany, but here’s a short list, for both entrepreneurs and team leaders: The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber Zero to One by Peter Thiel The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Scrum and XP from the Trenches by Henrik Kniberg ReWork – Jason Fried (Source)
Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, retrospectives (also known as "post-mortems") are only helpful at the end of the project--too late to help. You need agile retrospectives that are iterative and... more
--Doug DeCarlo, author of eXtreme Project... more
This is the definitive, realistic, actionable guide to starting fast with Scrum and agile–and then succeeding over the long haul. Leading agile consultant and practitioner Mike Cohn presents detailed recommendations, powerful tips, and real-world case studies drawn from his unparalleled experience helping hundreds of software organizations make Scrum and agile work.
"Succeeding with Agile" is for pragmatic software professionals who want real answers to the most difficult challenges... more
Nicolae AndronicI’m a technical guy. I studied the IT field and did software development for a long time until I discovered the business world. So the path for me is to slowly adapt from the clear, technical world, to the fuzzy, way more complex, business world. All the books that I recommend help this transition. “Succeeding with Agile” - Mike Cohn: for approaching the process involved into building a product... (Source)
The best way to build software that meets users' needs is to begin with "user stories": simple, clear, brief descriptions of functionality that will be valuable to real users. In User Stories Applied, Mike Cohn provides you with a front-to-back blueprint for writing these user stories and weaving them into your development lifecycle.
You'll learn what makes a great... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
An enlightening look at how peaceful communication can create compassionate connections with family, friends, and other acquaintances, this international bestseller uses stories, examples, and sample dialogues to provide solutions to communication problems both at home and in the workplace. Guidance is provided on identifying and articulating feelings and needs, expressing anger fully, and exploring the power of empathy in order to speak honestly without creating hostility, break... more
Satya NadellaUpon becoming CEO, Nadella confronted Microsoft’s legendarily combative culture by urging his new reports to read this book, which preaches the power of empathy, self-awareness, and authenticity in collaboration in the workplace, at home, and beyond. Like many of his favorites, it was first recommended to him by his wife, Anu: “I’m heavily influenced by the books she reads more than the books I... (Source)
Dustin MoskovitzSeek first to understand. (Source)
Esther PerelI think that this book is a classic for anyone who is thinking relationships. (Source)
"This book presents a method of communicating our desires, cogently, coherently, and with a minimum of fuss and bother." --Ken Schwaber, Chairman & Founder, Scrum.org The role of the Product Owner is more crucial than ever. But it's about much more than mechanics: it's about taking accountability and refocusing on value as the primary objective of all you do. In The Professional Product Owner, two leading experts in successful Scrum product ownership show exactly how to do this.... more
The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced.
With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with... more
Jeffrey SnoverGreat thread. I know of a number of devops people that haven't read this book. Ya'll should fix that. https://t.co/Yri4JJ0jBZ (Source)
Louis NyffeneggerI don't think I have a specific book that I can call my favourite. Some books have had a big impact on my view of how to build a product/company ("Rework"), some were very enjoyable to read ("The Phoenix Project"), some helped me improve the way I think ("The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out") and some the way I live ("Essentialism") or work ("Deep Work"). (Source)
Building a successful product usually involves teams of people, and many choose the Scrum... more
Noted software expert Robert C. Martin presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship . Martin has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code on the fly into a book that will instill within you the values of a software craftsman and... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
As commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), General Stanley McChrystal played a crucial role in the War on Terror. But when he took the helm in 2004, America was losing that war badly: despite vastly inferior resources and technology, Al Qaeda was outmaneuvering America’s most elite warriors.
McChrystal came to realize that today’s faster, more interdependent world had overwhelmed the conventional, top-down hierarchy of the... more
Doug McMillonHere's a list of the top books that taught and inspired me this year. I go back to Sam Walton's book frequently and was struck, this year, by some common principles between Sam and General McChrystal. It seems they learned some similar things about what works when it comes to leading teams. For example, fostering a shared consciousness and empowering execution delivers results. Greg Foran shared... (Source)
You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications, but a way to organize and have better conversations. This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having, when to... more
Find out how the Swedish police combined XP, Scrum, and Kanban in a 60-person project. From start to finish, you'll see how to deliver a successful product using Lean principles.
We start with an organization in desperate need of a new way of doing things and finish with a group of sixty, all working in sync to develop a scalable, complex system. You'll walk through the project step by step, from customer engagement, to the daily "cocktail party," version control, bug tracking, and release. In this honest look... more
Getting software released to users is often a painful, risky, and time-consuming process. This groundbreaking new book sets out the principles and technical practices that enable rapid, incremental delivery of high quality, valuable new functionality to users. Through automation of the build, deployment, and testing process, and improved collaboration between developers, testers, and operations, delivery teams can get changes released in a matter of hours-- sometimes even minutes-no matter what the size of a project or the... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Two powerful new chapters on agenda design A full section devoted to reaching closure More than twice as many tools for handling difficult dynamics 70 brand-new pages and over 100 pages significantly improved less
The Elements of Scrum opens with a blow-by-blow description of a week in the life of a scrum team, then briefly details the history and origins of... more
This no-fluff book contains more than 350 pages of detailed, step-by-step training perfect for both the complete newbie or seasoned pro looking to build a killer house flipping business.
In this book you'll discover:
How to... more
The Great ScrumMaster: #ScrumMasterWay is your complete guide to becoming an exceptionally effective ScrumMaster and using Scrum to dramatically improve team and organizational performance. Easy to digest and highly visual, you can read it in a weekend...and use it for an entire career. Drawing on 15 years of pioneering experience implementing Agile and Scrum and helping others do so, Zuzana Sochova guides you step by step through all key facets of success as a ScrumMaster in any context. Sochova reviews... more
Get ready to kick some software project butt. By learning the ways of the agile samurai you will discover:
how to... more
Software development doesn't have to be slow and expensive anymore. The Agile and Scrum software development method allows creation of the game–changing software you need to grow your business - in 30 days or less. Projects that use it are three times more successful than those that don′t, and the productivity gain versus traditional "waterfall" methods has been over 100 percent on many projects.
For the business manager, the entrepreneur, or IT manager, Software in 30 Days explains how this... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
--From the Foreword by Ken Schwaber, co-author of Scrum Mastering Professional Scrum is for anyone who wants to deliver increased value by using Scrum more effectively. Leading Scrum practitioners Stephanie Ockerman and Simon Reindl draw on years of Scrum training and coaching to help you return to first principles and apply Scrum with the... more
In this book, author Camille Fournier takes you through the stages of technical management, from mentoring interns to working with the senior staff. You ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path, whether you re a... more
The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to... more
Noah KaganOne of my favorite books ever. It’s not about your time, it’s about your energy. I read my favorite books again this year. Why not keep doing what works? The main things discussed in this book are how to maximize your energy and optimize recovery. (Source)
Chris GowardI recently enjoyed The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. It was a good reminder about the importance of managing energy rather than time and how important rest and balance are to achieving the highest levels of performance. (Source)
Joel GascoigneThe Power of Full Engagement was one of the first books that helped me to start to understand myself, and to work to embrace how I feel and be intuitive. The key concept in the book is that you should be either fully engaged in a task, or fully disegaged and finding renewal. For example, finding the natural dips within your day and thinking about rituals and changes you could make. Maybe you go... (Source)
Two of the industry's most experienced agile testing practitioners and consultants, Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory, have teamed up to bring you the definitive answers... more
Product Mastery explores the traits of the best product owners offering an insight into the difference between good and great product ownership and explaining how the best product owners are DRIVEN to be successful.
In a follow up to the hugely successful Scrum Mastery, Geoff Watts shares more enlightening case studies on how to be:
Decisive with incomplete... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
In J.J. Sutherland's first book, Scrum, written with his father, Jeff, he... more
Jeff Morris Jr.@briannekimmel @Lethain Great book — highly recommend. (Source)
Charity MajorsHoly fuckola. I got ~4 pages through @lethain's new book before realizing "this might be the best book I have ever read on engineering teams" and by page 42 I knew for sure. Every engineer should read this. Not just managers. https://t.co/cNI53wS4bK (Source)
Tobias Mayer has always brought both enthusiasm and skepticism to scrum. Whether you agree or disagree with him, and you're likely to do both, the essays in this book will always give you something worth thinking about.
Mike Cohn, author of Succeeding with Agile: Software Development using Scrum
Tobias Mayer’s signature move is to pick up a stone and throw it through our glass house, smashing our old paradigms and causing us, after some pain and turmoil, to say, “OK, my comfortable way doesn’t work... more
This inspiring tale provides a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance, and joy. A wonderfully crafted fable, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari tells the extraordinary story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life. On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he discovers powerful, wise, and practical lessons that teach us to:
Develop Joyful Thoughts, Follow Our Life's Mission and Calling, Cultivate Self-Discipline... more
Iqbal AmeerThe Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma is a great read especially when I feel burnt out or when the business is going through hard times. This book made me realize that sometimes I need to prioritize myself before the business as my overall health will affect how I manage my team. (Source)
“When will it be done?”
That is probably the first question your customers ask you once you start working on something for them. Think about how many times you have been asked that question. How many times have you ever actually been right?
We can debate all we want whether this is a fair question to ask given the tremendous amount of uncertainty in knowledge work, but the truth of the matter is that our... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
This book presents a series of case studies illustrating the fundamentals of Agile development and Agile design, and moves quickly from UML models to real C# code. The introductory... more
--Francesco Cirillo, Chief Executive Officer, XPLabs S.R.L. "The first edition of this book told us what XP was--it changed the way many of us think about software development. This second edition takes it farther and gives us a lot more of the 'why'... more
Specification by Example is an emerging practice for creating software based on realistic examples, bridging the communication gap between business stakeholders and the dev teams building the software. In this book, author Gojko Adzic distills interviews with successful teams worldwide, sharing how they specify, develop, and deliver software, without defects, in short iterative delivery cycles.
About the Technology
Specification by Example is a collaborative method for specifying requirements and tests. Seven patterns, fully explored in... more
This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. The authors have identified tools and techniques from some of the world's most innovative professionals, whose teams collaborate and make great things happen. This book is the result: a unique collection of games that encourage... more
Ola OlusogaSkimmed in the past, rereading. It has great examples of frameworks that help move you from fuzzy ideas to tangible output. (Source)
Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard’s John Kotter, it is a story that has been used to help thousands of people and organizations.
The fable is about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group of beautiful emperor penguins live as they have for many years. Then one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home—and pretty much no... more
Virginia LeBlancQuestion: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path. Answer: The Art of War by Sun Tzu Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle Divergent series by Veronica... (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
In today’s workplace, employees are routinely expected to coordinate and manage projects. Yet, chances are, you aren’t formally trained in managing projects—you’re an unofficial project manager.
FranklinCovey experts Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, and James Wood understand the importance of leadership in project completion and explain that people are crucial in the formula for success.
Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager offers practical, real-world insights for effective project... more
Keith has spent more than fifteen years... more
• Publishers Weekly Fall 2019 Top 10 Business and Economics Books
• Book Authority Best New Book in (the categories of) Time Management, Success, Productivity, and Goal Setting
• Kirkus Reviews Top Indie Book
• Montaigne Medal Finalist
Productivity Meets Purpose—Discover a Powerful Nine-Step Method to Start Finishing the Work That Matters Most
How much of your time and attention lately has been focused on things that truly matter to you? more
Ryan Deiss@CharlieGilkey @peeplaja @rorysutherland Yeah, man, it was a great book. I’m so glad you wrote it. Been telling everyone I know to read it. Respect. (Source)
The human side of Agile is tricky. It's the least manageable, understood, and appreciated asset in an Agile environment. Even if your customers are reasonably happy and your developers seem to be doing okay, you know your team is capable of more: delivering great products and staying ahead of ever-changing demands.
You need a team that’s self-organized, energetic, and flexible, even in tough situations. But how do you build it and lead it?
Whether you're a ScrumMaster, project manager,... more
Studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification exam can take time and effort, but knowing what to study should be effortless. That’s where this book comes in! A complete study guide for the PMP certification exam, Andy Crowe’s The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try, 6th edition provides all the information project managers need to thoroughly prepare for and pass the test.
This comprehensive study resource includes:
... more
As mobile and web technologies continue to evolve rapidly, there is added pressure to develop and implement software... more
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Learning Agile helps you recognize the principles that apply to development problems specific to your team, company, and projects. You’ll discover how to use... more
Learn the fundamentals of scrummaging, including an 8 week season plan for players and coaches of all levels. Accompanying the scrummaging drills is a neck conditioning program suitable for players of all ages. Each scrum drill and neck exercise is accompanied with instructional images to make learning easy to do on your own with minimal... more
For a retrospective to be... more
Head First PMP teaches you the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK(R) Guide in a unique and inspiring way. This updated fourth edition takes you beyond specific questions and answers with a unique visual format that helps you grasp the big picture of project management. By putting PMP concepts into context, you'll be able to understand, remember, and apply them--not just on the exam, but on the job. No wonder so many people have used Head First PMP as their sole source for passing the PMP exam. more
Chris Bailey turned down lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream—to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the pursuit of productivity, a subject he had been enamored with since he was a teenager. After obtaining his business degree, he created a blog to chronicle a year-long series of productivity experiments he conducted on himself, where he also continued his research and interviews with some... more
What if you had the ability to ignore distractions and get "into the zone" whenever you needed to? How might razor-sharp focus on demand affect your productivity?
Imagine having more free time to spend with your friends and loved ones. Imagine having the freedom to pursue things you're passionate about, whether it's gardening, hiking, reading, or restoring a classic car.
Amazon bestselling author, Damon Zahariades, takes you through a proven system that'll help you to master your... more
Creating something from nothing is a volatile journey. The first mile births a new idea into existence, and the final mile is all about letting go. We love talking about starts and finishes, even though the middle stretch is the most important and often the most ignored and misunderstood.
more
Joe GebbiaStarting a new venture is like jumping off a cliff and sewing a parachute on the way down. This book is the parachute. (Source)
Seth GodinScott Belsky is a master of generous work worth doing. The Messy Middle will help you see that you have more control than you dare to admit, and the ability to make a difference if you care enough. (Source)
Alexis OhanianThis is required reading for founders. Experienced entrepreneurs all know this period Scott refers to as 'the messy middle' and a few of us have worked our way out of it, but this is the first time I've seen an expert—both as a founder and as an investor—break down in such detail just how to endure, optimize, and make it through. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Scrum books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.